Abstract
BACKGROUND: Bullying is unwanted, aggressive, and usually repeated behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally. In line with Albert Bandura‟s social cognitive theory, children are surrounded by many influential models in the society, such as parents within the family, characters on children‟s television, friends within peer group, and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behavior to observe and imitate, including pro and anti-social. In the past two decades there have been an increasing number of television programs that demonstrate violence and bullying. This may have tremendous impact on children behavior by imitation. This study aimed to examine the relationship between social environment, watching violence program in television, and the tendency of bullying among primary school students.
SUBJECT AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Kudus, Central Java. A sample of 81 students was selected from Grade 1-6 of the primary schools in Kudus, Central Java. The dependent variable was the act of bullying. The independent variables included social environ-ment and watching violence and bullying programs in television. A struc-tured questionnaire was developed to collect the data.The data was analy-zed using Odds Ratio and Chi Square.
RESULTS: There was positive relationship between poor social environ-ment and bullying among primary school children. Children living in a poor social environment were 3.25 times more likely to do bullying than living in a good social environment (OR= 3.25; 95% CI= 1.28 to 8.30; p= 0.012). There was positive relationship between watching violence and bullying programs in television and the act to bullying among primary school children. Children watching violence and bullying programs in television were 1.60 times more likely to do bullying than watching good program (OR= 1.60; 95% CI= 0.68 to 4.00; p= 0.273).
CONCLUSION: Living in a poor social environment and watching violence and bullying programs in television increase the risk of bullying among primary school children. Albert Bandura‟s social cognitive theory on the role of learning a new behavior by imitation from the social environment is supported in this study.